'Happy Endings' Season 2 is at the top of our TV wish list

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There are few things sadder than the inevitable fate of the late, late mid-season replacement.

Such seems to be case with “Happy Endings,” a show that — despite looking like boring contemporaries “Perfect Couples,” “Mad Love,”“Traffic Light,” “Better With Your,” etc. — is one of the best additions to the 2010-2011 television season.

Too bad it doesn’t even seem to have a chance. Following initially steady ratings, ABC chose to burn off the 12-episode run, two at a time, in the very comedy unfriendly hour of 10:00 p.m. on Wednesdays. The numbers reflect it, with the May 4 “Happy Endings” double-header hitting a new low.

So why are we so upset? Shouldn’t we know better than to get attached to a low-profile April premiere? We should — but “Endings” is just so ridiculously funny, and now that we’ve seen it, we don’t want to live in a world without it.

This series captures the life of the late twenty-something the way “How I Met Your Mother” did when it first came out — and with it’s ensemble now navigating the problems that come with in your thirties, there is a generational hole in the current roster of sitcoms.

A show “Endings” may resemble more than “HIMYM” is “Cougar Town.” And though the latter obviously boasts a more senior cast, the humor and sensibility are the same. It’s a shame they haven’t been packaged together, because “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” have never seemed like a coherent fit.

And those other ABC series — with the addition of “The Middle,” which has never made it to our DVR — are already renewed. “Better With You” and “Mr. Sunshine” join “Happy Endings” in sweating it out until the Upfronts this month, while the network mulls the large number of comedy pilots under consideration.

We’re too rational to contemplate petitioning the Walt Disney Company to put more money into a project it clearly don’t think is working, but we do implore you to give “Endings” a chance if you haven’t watched it yet. That way, if it does get canceled, we’ll at least have someone to be bitter with.